The song “On the Banks of Ohio” sung by The Kossoy Sisters is about a man that kills the girl he loves because she doesn’t want to marry him. I think that the way the Kossoy Sisters sing the song sounds a little sad. I feel this way because of how the song is being sung by the Kossoy Sisters. The tone of the song isn’t really strong to me. I think that the tone sounds soft, so it gives sadness to the song. Also the pitch of the song doesn’t get very high or very low; it stays pretty much the same way throughout the whole song, thus making the song sound sad to me.

Olivia Newton John also sings the same song as the Kossoy Sisters but she sings it a little different from the Kossoy Sisters. John’s version of the song is sung through a woman’s perspective. John’s version of “On the Banks of Ohio” sounds sad too. Through out the song she has the same consistent tone but in some parts of the song you can really hear the heartache that she is portraying. For example when she sings the line, “I cried, “My God, what have I done?”” you can really hear the emphasis of how said she sounds. Another factor that makes the song sound sad are the background singers singing the very low pitches.

I believe that another reason why Olivia Newton John made changes to the song is so she can be seen as an authentic artist. As we know being authentic means to be the true source or origin of a trend. Even though she didn’t write the song, she made those changes to the song because she wanted to give the illusion that she was an authentic artist. John’s version of the song is different from the Kossoy Sisters and the other artists that has sang that song because her version is sung through a women’s point of view, while the other artists sang the song through a man’s point of view. Also John’s version has more of a pop vibe to it, while the others ones sounded a little bit similar to each other.

Olivia Newton John and the Kossoy Sisters both sing “On the Banks of Ohio” in different ways. The songs are different because the Kossoy Sisters sing their song through a man’s perspective and Olivia Newton John’s version is sung through a woman’s perspective. Singing the song through different views makes a big difference in how the over all sound of the song is. I think this is true because Olivia Newton John’s version of “On the Banks of Ohio” is sung through a women’s perspective, so it sounds sadder than the song sung by the Kossoy Sisters which is sung through a man’s perspective. I think that the male version sounds less sad because as we have come to know that men are suppose to be masculine and not show any vulnerability. So even though the people that are singing the song “On the Banks of Ohio” are women, they still have to sing the song as though they are men that are tough. As for the female version of the song, you can hear the heartache of a loss love because females are supposedly known to be emotional and feel sad in sad situations. So with the loss of someone she loves she feels sad and shows it more when she sings the song. An example of how the songs are different can be seen in the lyrics of the two versions of “On the Banks of Ohio”. In the female version, Olivia Newton John sings, “I cried, “My God, what have I done?””, while in the male version, the Kossoy Sisters sing, “Thinking of the deed I done.” These two lines are completely different from one another because in the female version you can hear how sad the women is, while in the male version you can only kind of sense his sadness.